The present invention generally relates to stringed musical instruments and more particularly to a stringed instrument comprising a fretboard (or fingerboard) whereupon the strings are fingered with the fingers of a musician's first hand to produce a desired musical tone when the strings are plucked, picked, bowed or otherwise actuated by the musician's second hand. The present invention more particularly relates to a status display incorporated into or adjacent to the fingerboard, the status display comprising the use of fretboard position markers for the status display, wherein the position markers comprise illumination means which are activated to indicate the status of the desired parameter, be it an indication of pick-up selection, an indication of the settings of volume or tone controls, or providing an indication whether a particular tone generated by a string has a desired pitch (i.e., whether the string is in tune to the desired pitch).
In most instances, the stringed instrument utilized in the present invention will comprise a sound chamber, or body, in which sound waves generated by the plucked strings are amplified by the vibrations of the materials forming the sound chamber and emitted from the sound chamber. However, the sound waves may also be amplified by electronic means, such as by various electrical pickups known in the art, in which case the body of the instrument may comprise a smaller sound chamber, or even be solid, such as in the case of a solid-body guitar.
For musical instruments such as a guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, violin, cello, etc., the sound chamber has a front (also referred to as the soundboard), sides, and usually a back.
For some of these instruments, the strings are attached on one end to a head at the end of a neck extending from the sound chamber, and attached at the other end to a bridge which is attached to the soundboard or, in some cases, such as with a violin, mandolin, cello, acoustic bass, or archtop guitar, the strings are attached to a “floating bridge” which extends from the “bottom” of the instrument (i.e., the end opposite the head of the instrument).
In the case of many musical instruments, such as acoustic guitars, the sides of the sound chamber generally comprise an upper bout, a waist, and a lower bout. As known by those skilled in the art, the lower bout is the large rounded bottom of the instrument, the upper bout is the smaller, rounded and convex shape at the top. Under the traditional design of acoustic guitars, the shape of the sound chamber is in the shape of a number “8”, with the upper half, i.e., the upper bout, being smaller than the bottom half, i.e., the lower bout. The upper bout and lower bout are separated by the “waist” of the guitar, which is the concave transition between the upper and lower bouts.
For a right handed player, the right hand is typically utilized for bowing, picking, strumming, or otherwise actuating the strings. For the remainder of this description, it will be assumed that the instrument is “right handed”, i.e., built to be played by a right-handed person. However, correlating the description for a left-handed instrument only requires the assumption that the right hand is utilized for fingering the notes and the left hand is utilized for bowing, picking or strumming the strings.
The sides of the instrument may, for purposes of description, be identified with respect to the strings. The treble strings of the instrument are usually on the side of the instrument generally facing downward as it is played, while the bass strings are on the side of the instrument generally facing upward as the instrument is played. Using the strings as a point of reference, the sides of a stringed instrument may be referred to as the treble side and the bass side. With respect to the string orientation described above, for instruments played with the soundboard generally facing away from the musician, such as guitar, mandolin, etc, the side of the instrument generally facing downward while played is considered as the treble side of the instrument and the side of the instrument facing upward is considered as the bass side of the instrument. The upper bout may therefore may be further described as having a treble side upper bout and a bass side upper bout and, likewise, the lower bout may be further described as having a bass side lower bout and a treble side lower bout.
For the typical right handed player, the upper bout of the instrument is adjacent to the player's left arm, and the lower bout is adjacent to the player's right arm. The left hand is utilized for fingering or otherwise actuating notes on the fretboard, where the fretboard is disposed on the neck of the instrument. For many stringed instruments, a portion of the fretboard cantilevers over the soundboard. The portion of the fretboard cantilevering over the soundboard is typically referred to as the fretboard extension. On some instruments, notably guitar, mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and (usually) bass, the fretboard may comprise a plurality of frets extending over its length, which enable the musician to locate a fingering position. However, it is to be appreciated that because there may be a large number of frets on the fingerboard, such as twenty-four on some guitars, it can be difficult to immediately ascertain a desired finger position on the fingerboard.
For many instruments, including guitar, mandolin, ukulele, banjo, bass, etc., it is common to use position indicators to assist a player in locating the notes on the fretboard. The position indicators are frequently inlayed or painted “dots” which may be place within the fretboard itself, such that the position indicators are on the face of the fretboard. Alternatively, or additionally, the position indicators may be inlayed dots which are located in the side of the fretboard (or binding material which is placed over the side of the fretboard), such that a player in a standing position for a guitar or similar instrument, is looking down at the position markers, which are located on the bass side of the neck.
In addition to the usual locations along the fretboard, such as the fifth, seventh, and ninth frets, the position indicators may also extend into the fretboard extension. For guitars, the position indicators are typically located at the 15th, 17th and 19th frets of the fretboard extension in addition to other locations on the fretboard. The inlay materials often comprise organic shell material such as abalone or mother of pearl to enhance the appearance of the instrument because of the contrast of those glimmering materials with the typical dark wood of the fretboard.
Under the traditional design for guitars, the exterior of the sound chamber has been symmetric, where the treble side and bass side are matching. However, over the years, instrument makers have modified the traditional design. One of the most common of these modifications, which results in an asymmetrical sound chamber, has been to fashion a “cut-away” into the treble side of the upper bout and upper portion of the soundboard adjacent to the neck on the treble side to allow the player greater access to the portions of the fretboard adjacent to the body of the guitar.
It is to be appreciated that the strings of the instruments must be in tune for the instrument to produce pleasing music. The instrument may be in tune relative to itself, where the strings of the instrument are in tune with one another but not necessarily in tune with a fixed standard. However, it is generally preferable to tune the instrument according to a standard pitch so that the instrument may be played with other instruments, or to play a particular piece in the pitch desired by a musical composer. With the development of electronic chromatic tuners, it is now relatively easy to determine whether the strings of the instrument are properly tuned to the desired pitch. Typically such tuners utilize a meter which indicates whether a played tone is sharp, flat, or in tune to a particular pitch. Such tuners may also comprise light emitting diode (“LED”) displays which provide a display showing whether the played tone is sharp, flat or in tune. Such tuners are sold by KORG, INTELLITOUCH, BOSS, SABINE and PLANET WAVES and described in various patents, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,388,496 and 7,049,502, which both disclose tuning devices having LED displays, where the tuning devices may be temporarily mounted on the guitar. It is also known for acoustic and electric guitars, to have on-board tuners which are permanently mounted within the instrument. An example of such an onboard tuner is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,637,820.
While the known devices satisfactorily enable the musician to tune the stringed instrument, there are also various drawbacks and disadvantages. For the temporarily mounted devices, the musician must typically separately transport the device and install it before a performance, such that the tuning device may be forgotten or mislocated. Some of the temporary devices employ adhesives or spring clamps which can potentially damage the finish of the instrument. For the known onboard devices, the device can be difficult for the musician to see the display. In addition, particularly because the device is usually a permanent part of the instrument, some onboard devices detract from the physical appearance of the instrument. This can be a significant consideration, particularly in the case of expensive and visually attractive instruments, such as high end custom acoustic guitars, where the appearance of the guitar can be of great importance to the musician.